misdemeanor? so like, murder is illegal, murdering multiple with a truck is kind of legal
Meanwhile a couple of parents in North Carolina are facing manslaughter charges after they let their kids walk to the grocery store while they guided them over the phone and one of them got hit and killed by a car.
And the driver has not been charged.
wtf
So, if you actually read the article, it says he claimed that the steering wheel locked up on him, but the NTSB stated that he suffered from severe fatigue. Maricopa county prosecutors said there wasn’t enough evidence to press any felonious charges.
So, at best, this would be a case of manslaughter (which is a felony), but there’s no conclusivity on whether it was with malicious intent or premeditated.
So no, he’s not a murderer. He negligently fell asleep at the wheel.
If u drive while being impaired (by whatever) ur a piece of shit and if u kill anyone doing that (except like suffering a heart attack or something not foreseeable) ur a murderer in my mind.
Fortunately, the law doesn’t operate on what’s in your mind.
Murder implies premeditation. The prosecutor and judge didn’t see evidence of premeditation.
A lot of people use the word “murder” in a colloquial sense and not a strictly legal one. Further some jurisdictions have degrees of murder where other jurisdictions would use manslaughter. I’m assuming the person you responded to meant the lesser charges.
Yeah im not gonna use a legal definition colloquially cuz im not a weirdo. And ur obviously right that even in a colloquial sense there is a difference between premeditated murder and non-premeditated murder. Im not arguing that the guy is jack the ripper.
congratulations
the law doesn’t operate on what’s in your mind.
are you sure? intent is an element of many crimes.
edit: i tired nvm
Failing to maintain a vehicle is an impairment. Also “my steering wheel locked up” is not a reason to not hit the brakes.
As someone who is a master of operating under what should be severe impairment I agree, being awake for 48 just leaves me vaguely slow when I talk. Also folks need to know their fucking limits, I refused to drive while I had food poisoning because I couldn’t think and also I didn’t want to shit myself in my car.
There is no law and order in the US. If you want to diddle kids, just operate a Joint commission accredited troubled teen facility. There are literally zero requirements, and you can sue anyone who questions you into poverty!
I mean it is not, by any legal definition of the word, murder.
The legal system, in this case specifically, can kiss my ass.
the legal system likewise respects you
Homicide.
You actually get rewarded for running over cyclists, one more and it would all have canceled out
Insane. My friend is serving 6 months because he fought back against his violent abusive dad one time. This guy gets 6-12 months after killing 2 and injuring 11? Wtf is this system?
Afluenza, you know. This guy probably has rich and powerful daddy and mommy.
He should never get his license back. What the hell. Only 6 months.
Unfortunately, traveling by car is seen as the default. Hence using something else than a car to travel is seen as taking unnecessary risks, which is why we see a lot of victim blaming.
Speed limit inside of cities should be like 30km/h, 20km/h during the times of day when school typically starts and ends, all day near a school. Fines for speeding should be 3 dayfines for each kilometer you’re over the limit, with five percent of your net worth being added to your annual income for the calculation. 5 dayfines if you speed in a school zone. And if somebody throws themselves in front of your car, and they die, you should lose your license for 6 months. (Though in this case, all financial damages emerging from your license suspension should be paid by the estate of the deceased). In case of vehicular manslaughter that doesn’t involve somebody deliberately hitting your car, the license should be suspended permanently.
Sorry for the rant.
It’s ok, none of the people killed or hurt were billionaires, so like… they guy barely broke any real laws worth worrying about.
Remember people, if you wanna kill someone, make sure you’re in a car! If you’re lucky you might not even get a jail sentence!
Remember people, if you wanna kill someone, make sure you’re a rich white person in a car!
Also doesn’t hurt if the people you plow over are young, minorities, women, or - best of all - progressive activists.
This is good. It gives the grieving families a year to plan how to get the bastard once he’s out of jail.
wtf America.
So, upon reading the article, the NTSB concluded the driver was extremely fatigued.
Do truck drivers not get tired where your from? Is this incident really an indictment of the entire United States? Is the rest of the world a tragedy-free paradise?
No, because we have mandatory breaks and such. Every second gets fully recorded and stored for authorities to check. Driving without sleep just isn’t worth the risk of losing your license
So does the United States in their trucking industry. This guy just fucked up horribly. He is not, however, a murderer which implies premeditation.
Driving drunk is also premeditated. As should lack of sleep be
“Premeditated” in the context of homicide means someone intended to kill someone else. That is, they set into motion a course of actions because they believed that course of action would result in the death of a person.
Homicide in the context of fatigue or impairment are not usually premeditated because people generally do not put themselves in those cognitive states believing that doing so will result in the death of someone else.
Historically judicial systems have recognized that those cognitive states are more likely to result in unintentional deaths so do hold people operating vehicles under those conditions to a higher standard of punishment than, say, a sober person involved in a fatal crash. At the same time they consider intent and hold people in those circumstances to a lower standard of punishment than those who actually intended to kill someone.
I’m glad you and everyone else chose that double shift.
Prosecutor needs to be tried for treason. At the very least there needs to be a permanent license suspension.
for international context here: this is (one of) the hottest major city in the
countryworld; we have year round bike weather. This happens all the time unfortunately.The hottest city != Bike weather?
They meant to say “bike melting weather”
People who live here are used to the heat. I ride my bike in >40° weather all the time. People who aren’t used to the heat yet will start to ride right before sunrise when it’s 27-30°. To give you another frame of reference: I set my HVAC to 25.5° year round and turn it down to 24.5° when I’m “overheated” (room temp <24° is unbearably cold to me). We’re just built different here.
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Yeeehaw
I’d like to know whether that means he can drive for the 2nd hald of his prison term.
It’s really cool how judges would say that all human lives are equal but also closely match them to their net worth…
After those six months, we need you back out on those streets running over cyclists and subsidizing our dying domestic auto industry, you hear me?!
- Judge in this case after doing his sentencing
/s
Sentencing people to life in prison wont bring the dead back alive. He clearly didn’t intend to kill anyone and intentions matter. I don’t get the blood thirst here.
Why should people be held responsible for killing other people!? You have a responsibility when you drive. To not kill people. It really shouldn’t be difficult.
In addition to the pending prison sentence, he must pay $2,500, complete 60 hours of community service and submit to quarterly drug testing as part of the plea deal. His driver’s license will also be suspended for nearly six months.
Would you say the same thing if he were drunk? Why or why not?
I’d say killing a person because you were drunk driving is worse offence than killing someone because you fell a sleep but neither of them are intentional. If he did this because he hates cyclists it would be a whole another story.
But why is it a worse offense? In both cases you have plenty of notice that you’re driving impaired. One could argue it’s worse for tired drivers because their judgement isn’t clouded by an intoxicating substance that impairs judgement.
I’d argue that virtually every driver has at some point driven while tired to some degree, but most have never driven drunk. Driving drunk shows poor judgment not only when you get behind the wheel, but also when you started drinking without considering you might need to drive later. You can’t really blame someone for suffering from insomnia - but you can blame them for drinking.
If he did this because he hates cyclists it would be a whole another story.
It would? How much shorter would you prefer his sentence to be if he did it out of hatred for cyclists?
I don’t get why you assume I’d think the sentence should be shorter.
Because it’s clear that you don’t think it should be longer.
What’s your problem? Why so accusatory?
BANANA
Interesting hypothesis. I’d love to peruse an executive summary of your research methodologies.
B
It’s short for bananas banana republic. As in the law is fucked up, or it isn’t followed. USA has become a banana republic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_republicI just though I’d shorthand it, because there are so many news stories that show this, that it’s exhausting to respond to them individually.
How does that apply here?
Arizona is part of USA, and 1 year for killing 2 people due to gross irresponsibility.
The laws are not designed for justice, but to benefit the rich.Just because it doesn’t sate your lust for vengeance?
I imagine he’ll face the consequences for the rest of his life, regardless of how the “justice” system handles it. Honestly, I’d be surprised if he lived 10 years before something happened to him. The victims had families.
I would be extremely surprised if anything happened to him. It’s not a movie.
At the very least there are 13 big civil suits coming his way.
Those still have to go through jury? What happens if he cannot afford a lawyer?
Then he will have one appointed for him. It’s kinda the reason that public defenders exist.
But that is for criminal cases as far as I know. You will not get a public defender for civil case as far as I know.
Apparently so! Today I learned something new! Driver’ll prolly get shafted with court costs, tho…
I don’t think there are any court costs here. Not something he would be forced to pay. He gets an option to hire a lawyer or represent himself.
